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Monday, 2 April 2012

Collard, Neal and Plato win in BTCC

Jason Plato emerges from his car as the Championship leader, with MG as the leading constructor.

Robert
Collard, Matt Neal and Jason Plato shared the wins in the Dunlop MSA
British Touring Car Championship’s first three races of 2012 today at
the Brands Hatch Indy circuit in Kent. A win for double Champion Plato
in race three – notably also for the famous MG badge on its return to
the championship – means he leads the standings as the title race now
moves to Donington Park in Leicestershire in a fortnight (14/15 April).

Dave
Newsham had qualified on a career-first pole position for the opening
race but his Team ES Racing.com Vauxhall Vectra crashed out in a tangle
with Plato’s new MG KX Momentum Racing MG6. This enabled Collard’s eBay
Motors BMW to sneak through for victory. Finishing second and third were
Neal’s new Honda Yuasa Racing Team Honda Civic and Collard’s team-mate
Tom Onslow-Cole.

Neal
then came out on top of a long tussle with Plato to win race two – the
first victory for a car built to the BTCC’s latest ‘Next Generation
Touring Car’ technical regulations. In fact it was an NGTC ‘1-2-3’ as
Andrew Jordan’s Pirtek Racing Honda Civic was second after muscling past
Plato’s MG in the closing laps. Meanwhile there was a lucky escape for
Nick Foster who rolled his eBay Motors BMW onto its roof.

Plato’s
victory in race three – which increased his career record tally of wins
to 69 – came after he turned the tables on Jordan by passing him for
the lead at mid-distance. Jordan took second ahead of Newsham who, after
his race one disappointment, ended the day on a high with a maiden
podium result. Significantly the race needed to be re-started after a
multiple pile-up shortly after the original start forced a red flag
stoppage.

“We honestly never expected this so soon so we’re all cock-a-hoop,”
enthused Plato. “I must take my hat off to my team – I’m just a small
part of it all and they have worked their socks off to get this car
ready. It’s still way off being fully sorted so I’d imagine the rest of
the pit lane is probably feeling a bit scared…”

Neal
commented: “It’s great that the new Honda has shown race-winning pace
on its debut but I don’t think I’ve started a season before when the
competition has been so fierce. The BMWs were on fire and Jason and that
MG also look like they might take a bit of catching. We can’t afford to
leave any stone unturned.”

Jordan added: “Any other day I’d be very pleased with two seconds but
I’m slightly disappointed that the win got away from me in race three –
it’s certainly got me fired up for my home event at Donington. The main
thing, though, is we’ve come away from the first round with a decent
points haul.”

Collard, who backed up his race one win with a pair of sixths, said:
“I’m delighted with the win so a bit disappointed to be off the podium
in the next two races but at least we’re in the hunt from the off.”

Having
dominated 2011’s Manufacturers/Constructors Championship,
Honda/Dynamics find themselves trailing MG/888 after Brands Hatch’s
three races. And it is Pirtek Racing, thanks to Jordan and team-mate
Jeff Smith’s combined efforts, which has stolen an early lead in the HiQ
Teams Championship. Jordan and Pirtek also lead the Independent drivers
and teams’ standings respectively.

Elsewhere,
officials fined Robert Collard (£500) and Jason Plato (£750) and put
three penalty points on both drivers’ competitions licences following
on-track incidents. The Honda Yuasa Racing Team’s Gordon Shedden was
also excluded from race three’s results after his team carried out
unauthorised work on his car during a red flag period.